Communications method and apparatus based on social application

ABSTRACT

A communications method includes: acquiring at least one second user according to location information of a current terminal and a specified application identifier, the second user being a user whose geographical location is in a preset range of the current terminal; determining, when receiving a first selection instruction with respect to any user among the at least one second user, the second user corresponding to the first selection instruction as a target user, and acquiring a communication message to be sent, the communication message carrying a first user identifier of a user that has logged in to a specified application on the current terminal, a target user identifier, and second message content; sending the communication message to a specified application server when receiving a sending instruction. The specified application server sends the first user identifier and the second message content to the target user according to the target user identifier.

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2015/078796, filed on May 12, 2015. This application claims thebenefit and priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201410201499.2,entitled “COMMUNICATIONS METHOD AND APPARATUS BASED ON SOCIALAPPLICATION” and filed on May 13, 2014. The entire disclosures of eachof the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure relates to the field of the Internet, and inparticular, to a communications method and apparatus based on a socialapplication.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

With the development of web technologies, more and more applications maybe based on a same account mechanism. For example, an account of asocial application may be used for login to another non-socialapplication that uses a same account mechanism as the socialapplication, and the non-social application may be a game application, avideo playback application, or the like. Therefore, when a user logs into the non-social application, the user can see social-applicationfriends using the non-social application. For example, when a user usesa WeChat account to log in to the game WeMatch, the user can see WeChatfriends playing the game; for another example, when a user uses a WeChataccount to log in to a video client, the user can see, in the videoclient, WeChat friends using the video client.

In an actual application, a non-social application only displays afriend in a social application using a same account mechanism and alevel of the friend. For example, in a game application, the user maycheck a game score of the friend, and in a video playback application,the user may check a recent playback record of the friend. In otherwords, the user can only acquire behavior of users on a user relationchain thereof, and limited by the account mechanism, the user cannotexpand the social circle based on factors such as a shared hobby; theapplication can only provide a small amount of information.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect, a communications method based on a socialapplication is provided, including:

acquiring at least one second user according to location information ofa current terminal and a specified application identifier, the seconduser being a user whose geographical location is in a preset range ofthe current terminal;

determining, when receiving a first selection instruction with respectto any user among the at least one second user, the second usercorresponding to the first selection instruction as a target user, andacquiring a communication message to be sent, the communication messagecarrying a first user identifier of a user that has logged in to aspecified application on the current terminal, a target user identifier,and second message content; and

sending the communication message to a specified application server whenreceiving a sending instruction, so that the specified applicationserver sends the first user identifier and the second message content tothe target user according to the target user identifier.

According to a second aspect, a communications method based on a socialapplication is provided, including:

acquiring at least one second user corresponding to a first user thathas logged in to a specified application on a terminal, and sending theat least one second user to the terminal;

receiving a communication message sent by the terminal, thecommunication message carrying a first user identifier, a target useridentifier, and second message content, and the target user identifierbeing an identifier of a user selected by the first user from the atleast one second user; and

sending the first user identifier and the second message content to thetarget user according to the target user identifier.

According to a third aspect, a communications apparatus based on asocial application is provided, including a processor, a memory, andmultiple instruction modules executed by a computer, the multipleinstruction module comprising:

a first acquiring module, configured to acquire at least one second useraccording to location information of a current terminal and a specifiedapplication identifier, the second user being a user whose geographicallocation is in a preset range of the current terminal;

a second acquiring module, configured to determine, when receiving afirst selection instruction with respect to any user among the at leastone second user, the second user corresponding to the first selectioninstruction as a target user, and acquire a communication message to besent, the communication message carrying a first user identifier of auser that has logged in to a specified application on the currentterminal, a target user identifier, and second message content; and

a first sending module, configured to send the communication message toa specified application server when receiving a sending instruction, sothat the specified application server sends the first user identifierand the second message content to the target user according to thetarget user identifier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentinvention more clearly, the following briefly introduces theaccompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments of thepresent invention. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in thefollowing description show merely some embodiments of the presentinvention, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may still deriveother drawings from these accompanying drawings without creativeefforts.

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram of a system based on a socialapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an architecture diagram of another system based on a socialapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of another method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5A is a flowchart of a method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram of a main interface of a specifiedapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5C is a schematic diagram of an interface of a prompt box forenabling a location function according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5D is a schematic diagram of a type of map grid numbers accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5E is a schematic diagram of an interface for displaying usersnearby according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5F is a schematic diagram of another interface for displaying usersnearby according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5G is a schematic diagram of a personal information interface of atarget user according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5H is a schematic diagram of a message content editing pageaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6A is a flowchart of a method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6B is a schematic diagram of a type of map grids according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is schematic structural diagram of an apparatus based on a socialapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is schematic structural diagram of another apparatus based on asocial application according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

To make the technical solutions, and advantages of the presentdisclosure clearer, the implementation manners of the present disclosurewill be described in more detail below with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram of a communications system based on asocial application according to an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 1, the communications system based on a socialapplication includes a terminal, a specified application server, and asocial application server. The terminal and the specified applicationserver are connected through a network; the specified application serverand the social application server are connected through a network. Theterminal may be a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), orthe like.

The terminal is configured to exchange data with the specifiedapplication server, run various applications installed on the terminal,and display data of various applications, and the like. The specifiedapplication server is configured to receive a request sent by theterminal, and process the request sent by the terminal; the specifiedapplication server is further configured to store information of a userusing the specified application; and the specified application server isfurther configured to exchange data with the social application server.The social application server is configured to provide data required bythe social application, and is further configured to enable users tocommunicate with each other through the social application.

FIG. 2 is an architecture diagram of another communications system basedon a social application according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 2, the communications system based on asocial application includes a terminal, an application server, a socialapplication server, a location agent server, a map server and multiplestorage servers. The terminal and the application server are connectedthrough a network; the application server and the social applicationserver are connected through a network, and the application server isfurther connected to the location agent server through a network; thelocation agent server and the map server are connected through anetwork, and the location agent server is further connected to multiplestorage servers through a network.

The terminal is configured to exchange data with the application server,run various applications installed on the terminal, and display data ofvarious applications, and the like. The application server is configuredto receive a request sent by the terminal and process the request sentby the terminal; the social application server is configured to providedata required by the social application, and is further configured toenable users to communicate with each other through the socialapplication. The location agent server is configured to acquire locationinformation of the terminal. The map server is configured to parse thelocation information, to obtain longitude and latitude datacorresponding to the location information. The multiple storage serversare configured to user data, and the like.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a communications method based on a socialapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 3, the method includes:

Step 301: Acquire at least one second user according to locationinformation of a current terminal and a specified applicationidentifier, the second user being a user whose geographical location isin a preset range of the current terminal.

Step 302: Determine, when receiving a first selection instruction withrespect to any user among the at least one second user, the second usercorresponding to the first selection instruction as a target user, andacquire a communication message to be sent, the acquired communicationmessage carrying a first user identifier of a user that has logged in toa specified application on the current terminal, a target useridentifier, and second message content.

Step 303: Send the communication message to a specified applicationserver when receiving a sending instruction, so that the specifiedapplication server sends the first user identifier and the secondmessage content to the target user according to the target useridentifier.

In this embodiment of the present invention, a current terminalacquires, according to location information of a current terminal and aspecified application identifier, at least one second user that haslogged in to a specified application; when receiving a selectioninstruction with respect to any user among the at least one second user,determines the second user corresponding to the selection instruction asa target user; acquires a communication message to be sent, and sendsthe communication message to a specified application server whenreceiving a sending instruction, so that the specified applicationserver sends the first user identifier and the second message content tothe target user according to the target user identifier. In this way, auser can know behavior of users that are not on a relation chainthereof, a social circle of the user is expanded, and the amount ofinformation that an application can provide is improved.

Optionally, the acquiring at least one second user according to locationinformation of a current terminal and a specified application identifierincludes:

acquiring the location information of the current terminal whenreceiving a check instruction;

sending an acquisition request to the specified application server, theacquisition request carrying the first user identifier and the locationinformation of the current terminal, so that the specified applicationserver acquires at least one second user from a user database accordingto the first user identifier and the location information, the userdatabase storing an identifier of at least one user that logs in to thespecified application and coordinate information of each user; and

receiving the at least one second user sent by the specified applicationserver.

Optionally, the method further includes:

acquiring a distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal;

sorting the at least one second user according to the distance betweenthe at least one second user and the current terminal; and

displaying the at least one second user according to a sorted order ofthe at least one second user.

Optionally, the acquiring a communication message to be sent includes:

displaying a message content editing page, the message content editingpage including an editing interface and at least one piece of firstmessage content;

generating, when receiving a second selection instruction with respectto the at least one piece of first message content, second messagecontent according to an editing instruction received through the editinginterface and the first message content corresponding to the secondselection instruction; and

generating the communication message according to the second messagecontent, the first user identifier and the target user identifier.

Optionally, the method further includes:

intercepting, when the sending instruction is received, thecommunication message if the quantity of communication messages thathave been sent in preset duration reaches a preset threshold and noreply message from the target user is received within the presetduration, and displaying interception prompt information; or

determining, after the communication message is sent to the specifiedapplication server, that the specified application server hasintercepted the communication message if interception prompt informationsent by the specified application server is received, and displaying theinterception prompt information.

All the possible technical solutions described above may be combinedrandomly to form optional embodiments of the present disclosure, whichare not described in detail herein.

FIG. 4 shows a communications method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.4, the method includes:

Step 401: Acquire at least one second user corresponding to a first userthat has logged in to a specified application on a terminal, and sendthe at least one second user to the terminal.

Step 402: Receive a communication message sent by the terminal, thecommunication message carrying a first user identifier, a target useridentifier, and second message content, and the target user identifierbeing an identifier of a user selected by the first user from the atleast one second user.

Step 403: Send the first user identifier and the second message contentto the target user according to the target user identifier.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after acquiring at leastone second use, the server sends the at least one second user to theterminal, and when receiving a communication message sent by theterminal, the server sends the first user identifier and the secondmessage content to the target user according to the target useridentifier. In this way, a user can know behavior of users that are noton a relation chain thereof, a social circle of the user is expanded,and the amount of information that an application can provide isimproved.

Optionally, the acquiring at least one second user corresponding to afirst user that has logged in to a specified application on a terminal,and sending the at least one second user to the terminal includes:

receiving an acquisition request sent by the terminal, the acquisitionrequest carrying the first user identifier and location information ofthe terminal;

acquiring at least one second user from a user database according to thefirst user identifier and the location information of the terminal, theuser database storing an identifier of at least one user that has loggedin to the specified application and location information of each user;and

sending the at least one second user to the terminal.

Optionally, the acquiring at least one second user from a user databaseaccording to the first user identifier and the location information ofthe terminal includes:

acquiring coordinate information of the terminal in a presettwo-dimensional map according to the location information of theterminal;

determining, according to a circular area that uses a pointcorresponding to the coordinate information as a center and a presetdistance as a radius, map grids that the circular area occupies in thepreset two-dimensional map, the preset two-dimensional map includingmultiple map grids having a same size; and

acquiring at least one second user from the user database according tothe determined map grids and the first user identifier.

Optionally, the acquiring at least one second user from the userdatabase according to the determined map grids and the first useridentifier includes:

acquiring numbers of the determined map grids, and acquiring, from astored correspondence between map grid numbers and user identifiers,corresponding user identifiers according to the acquired numbers of themap grids;

selecting, among the acquired user identifiers, another user identifierexcept the first user identifier;

acquiring, according to the selected user identifier, correspondingcoordinate information from a stored correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information; and

determining at least one second user according to the acquiredcoordinate information.

Optionally, the determining at least one second user according to theacquired coordinate information includes:

determining a user corresponding to the acquired coordinate informationas the at least one second user; or

selecting, from the acquired coordinate information and according to theacquired coordinate information, the center and the radius, coordinateinformation corresponding to a geographical location that is in thepreset range of the terminal, and determining a user corresponding tothe selected coordinate information as the at least one second user.

Optionally, after the acquiring coordinate information of the terminalin a preset two-dimensional map according to the location information ofthe terminal, the method further includes:

calculating a map grid number corresponding to the coordinateinformation according to the coordinate information of the terminal inthe preset two-dimensional map;

storing the map grid number and the first user identifier into acorrespondence between map grid numbers and user identifiers; and

storing the first user identifier and the coordinate information into acorrespondence between user identifiers and coordinate information.

Optionally, after the receiving a communication message sent by theterminal, the method further includes:

intercepting, when the communication message sent by the terminal to thetarget user is received, the received communication message if thequantity of communication messages that have been received in presetduration reaches a preset threshold and no reply message sent by thetarget user to the terminal is received within the preset duration, andsending interception prompt information to the terminal.

All the possible technical solutions described above may be combinedrandomly to form optional embodiments of the present disclosure, whichare not described in detail herein.

Because the communications method based on a social application providestwo different implementation manners for acquiring at least one seconduser, the two implementation manners are elaborated in two differentembodiments below.

FIG. 5A shows a communications method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention; this embodiment ofthe present invention is described by using an example in which thecommunications method based on a social application is applied to animplementation environment shown in FIG. 1, and this embodiment of thepresent invention elaborates the first implementation manner foracquiring at least one second user in the communications method based ona social application. Referring to FIG. 5A, the method includes:

Step 501: Acquire location information of a current terminal if thecurrent terminal receives a check instruction.

Specifically, when a user submits a check instruction to the currentterminal, the current terminal receives the check instruction, and thecurrent terminal determines whether a location function is enabled. Ifthe location function is enabled, the current terminal uses the locationfunction to acquire the location information of the current terminal; ifthe location function is not enabled, the current terminal displays aprompt box for enabling the location function, and if the currentterminal receives a confirm instruction for enabling the locationfunction, the current terminal enables the location function, and usesthe location function to acquire the location information of the currentterminal.

The check instruction is used for checking users in a preset range ofthe current terminal, that is, the check instruction is used forchecking users that are within a certain distance from the currentterminal. As shown in FIG. 5B, FIG. 5B shows a main interface of aspecified application according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. After a first user logs in to the specified application onthe current terminal, the terminal displays the main interface shown inFIG. 5B. The main interface of the specified application includes aspecified user list, and the specified user list includes informationsuch as a level and an achievement of a user, where the user is one on arelation chain of the first user that logs in to the specifiedapplication on the current terminal. The main interface further includesa start button, a nearby user checking button, a special achievementbutton, and a reward-for-invitation button, and the user may click thenearby user checking button to submit a check instruction to the currentterminal. The start button in the main interface is used for submittinga start instruction of using the specified application, the specialachievement button is used for checking achievements of the user usingthe specified application, and the reward-for-invitation button is usedfor checking rewards that the user wins when using the specifiedapplication.

If the current terminal does not enable the location function, thecurrent terminal displays the prompt box for enabling the locationfunction, as shown in FIG. 5C, where the prompt box for enabling thelocation function may include an “allow” button and a “reject” button.When the user clicks the “allow” button, it is determined that the userconfirms enabling the location function, and in this case, the currentterminal receives a confirm instruction for enabling the locationfunction. When the user clicks the “reject” button, it is determinedthat the user does not want to enable the location function, and in thiscase, the current terminal receives a rejection instruction of notenabling the location function; when receiving the rejectioninstruction, the terminal ends operation. The terminal returns to themain interface of the specified application shown in FIG. 5B.

It should be noted that, the manner shown in FIG. 5B is merely used asan example for describing a check instruction submission manner, and themanner shown in FIG. 5C is also merely used as an example for describinga display manner of the prompt box for enabling the location function.In an actual application, the check instruction may be submitted inother manners, and the prompt box for enabling the location function mayalso be displayed in other manners, which are not listed one by one inthe present disclosure.

Step 502: The current terminal sends an acquisition request to aspecified application server, the acquisition request carrying a firstuser identifier of a user that has logged in to a specified applicationon the current terminal and the location information of the currentterminal.

Specifically, the current terminal acquires a first user identifier of auser that has logged in to a specified application on the currentterminal, generates an acquisition request according to the first useridentifier and the location information of the current terminal, andsends the acquisition request to the specified application server.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the user may use an accountof a social application to log in to the specified application, and inthis case, the current terminal stores a first user identifier of a userthat has logged in to the specified application. The first useridentifier may be an identifier of the social application, or a useridentifier of the user in the social application, where the useridentifier of the user in the social application may be an account thatthe user registers in the social application, and certainly, may also bea nickname of the user in the social application, and the like.

Step 503: The specified application server acquires at least one seconduser from a user database according to the first user identifier and thelocation information when receiving the acquisition request, the userdatabase storing an identifier of at least one user that logs in to thespecified application and coordinate information of each user.

Specifically, when the specified application server receives theacquisition request, the specified application server acquirescoordinate information of the current terminal in a presettwo-dimensional map according to the location information; determines,according to a circular area that uses a point corresponding to thecoordinate information as a center and a preset distance as a radius,map grids that the circular area occupies in the preset two-dimensionalmap, where the preset two-dimensional map includes multiple map gridshaving a same size; and acquires at least one second user from the userdatabase according to the determined map grids and the first useridentifier.

A specific operation of acquiring, by the specified application server,coordinate information of the current terminal in a presettwo-dimensional map according to the location information may be:parsing, by the specified application server, the location information,to obtain longitude and latitude data of the current terminal. Accordingto the longitude and latitude data of the current terminal, thecoordinate information of the current terminal in the presettwo-dimensional map is calculated by using the following formula (1),where the coordinate information includes an abscissa and an ordinate.

$\begin{matrix}\left\{ \begin{matrix}{x = {\left( {180 - j} \right) \times 40000 \times {10^{3}/360}}} \\{y = {\left( {90 - w} \right) \times 20000 \times {10^{3}/180}}}\end{matrix} \right. & (1)\end{matrix}$

where in the foregoing formula (1), x is an abscissa of the currentterminal in the preset two-dimensional map, j is longitude data of thecurrent terminal, y is an ordinate of the current terminal in the presettwo-dimensional map, and w is latitude data of the current terminal.

It should be noted that, the earth is a slightly flattened sphere, wherethe length of the equator is 40076 kilometers, and the length of themeridian is 40009 kilometers. The earth is approximated as a rectangle(referring to world maps we hang on the wall) using the equator as thelong side of the rectangle. Then, the length of the rectangle is thelength of the equator, and in this embodiment of the present invention,40000 kilometers is used as the length of the rectangle, and 20000kilometers is used as the width of the rectangle. In this case, thelength represented by one longitude degree may be 40000 kilometers/360,and the length represented by one latitude degree is 20000kilometers/180. In addition, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, a location at 180 degrees east longitude and 90 degrees northlatitude is used as the origin of coordinates in the presettwo-dimensional map, where the longitude represents a horizontal axis, apositive direction of the horizontal axis is east to west, the latituderepresents a vertical axis, and a positive direction of the verticalaxis is north to south. In this case, a preset two-dimensional map canbe obtained, then the preset two-dimensional map is divided to obtainmultiple square map grids having a same size, and the multiple map gridshaving a same size are numbered according to a given rule. For example,in this embodiment of the present invention, the preset two-dimensionalmap may be divided by using a square having a side length of 100 metersas a unit, and the map grids in the preset two-dimensional map may benumbered in ascending order along the horizontal axis from the origin ofcoordinates, as shown in FIG. 5. Certainly, the map grids in the presettwo-dimensional map may also be numbered in ascending order along thevertical axis from the origin of coordinates, and this embodiment of thepresent invention is described by using an example in which the mapgrids in the preset two-dimensional map are numbered in ascending orderalong the horizontal axis from the origin of coordinates.

Further, after the acquiring, by the specified application server,coordinate information of the terminal in a preset two-dimensional mapaccording to the location information, the method further includes:

calculating a map grid number corresponding to the coordinateinformation according to the coordinate information of the terminal inthe preset two-dimensional map; storing the calculated map grid numberand the first user identifier into a correspondence between map gridnumbers and user identifiers; and storing the first user identifier andthe acquired coordinate information into a correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information.

According to the coordinate information of the terminal in the presettwo-dimensional map, the map grid number corresponding to the coordinateinformation is calculated by using the following formula (2);GridGID=[(40000×1000)/s]×└y/s┘+└x/s┘+1  (2)

where in the foregoing formula (2), is the map grid number correspondingto the coordinate information, s is a side length of the map grid in thepreset two-dimensional map, which is a known variable, and in thisembodiment of the present invention, s is 100, and represents a rounddown operation.

A specific operation of storing the calculated map grid number and thefirst user identifier into a correspondence between map grid numbers anduser identifiers may be: if the stored correspondence between map gridnumbers and user identifiers includes a record corresponding to thefirst user identifier, replacing a map grid number corresponding to thefirst user identifier in the stored correspondence between map gridnumbers and user identifiers with the calculated map grid number; or ifthe stored correspondence between map grid numbers and user identifiersdoes not include a record corresponding to the first user identifier,creating a corresponding record in the correspondence between map gridnumbers and user identifiers, and storing the calculated map grid numberand the first user identifier into the created record.

A specific operation of storing the first user identifier and theacquired coordinate information into a correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information may be: if the storedcorrespondence between user identifiers and coordinate informationincludes a record corresponding to the first user identifier, replacingcoordinate information corresponding to the first user identifier in thestored correspondence between user identifiers and coordinateinformation with the acquired coordinate information; or if the storedcorrespondence between user identifiers and coordinate information doesnot include a record corresponding to the first user identifier,creating a corresponding record in the correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information, and storing the acquiredcoordinate information and the first user identifier into the createdrecord.

A specific operation of acquiring at least one second user from a userdatabase according to the determined map grids and the first useridentifier may be: acquiring numbers of the determined map grids, andacquiring corresponding user identifiers from the stored correspondencebetween map grid numbers and user identifiers according to the acquirednumbers of the map grids; selecting, among the acquired user identifies,another user identifier except the first user identifier, and acquiringcorresponding coordinate information from the stored correspondencebetween user identifiers and coordinate information according to theselected user identifier; and determining at least one second useraccording to the acquired coordinate information.

The user may use different social application accounts to log in to thespecified application, and therefore, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, user identifiers stored in the specified application servermay further be marked by using social application identifiers. In thisembodiment of the present invention, user identifiers marked by a samesocial application identifier may be acquired, and users correspondingto the acquired user identifiers are determined as the at least onesecond user.

Further, in the specified application server, a timestamp may be set foreach record in the correspondence between user identifiers andcoordinate information, and during selection of at least one seconduser, a user in a first preset period that is prior to the current timeand is closest to the current time may be selected; in this case, aspecific operation of acquiring corresponding coordinate informationfrom the stored correspondence between user identifiers and coordinateinformation according to the selected user identifier may be: acquiringcorresponding coordinate information from the stored correspondencebetween user identifiers and coordinate information according to theselected user identifier, and acquiring a current time, and selecting,according to a timestamp corresponding to a record to which the acquiredcoordinate information belongs, coordinate information in a first presetperiod whose timestamp is prior to the current time and is closest tothe current time.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the manner of acquiring atleast one second user according to the acquired coordinate informationmay be implemented according to any of the following two situations,including:

The first situation: Determine a user corresponding to the acquiredcoordinate information as the at least one second user.

In this embodiment of the present invention, when the presettwo-dimensional map is divided into map grids, the size of the map gridsis relatively small, and therefore, a given error is allowed when the atleast one second user is acquired, and the user corresponding to theacquired coordinate information may be directly determined as the atleast one second user.

The second situation: Select, from the acquired coordinate informationand according to the acquired coordinate information, the center and theradius, coordinate information corresponding to a geographical locationthat is in the preset range of the terminal, and determine a usercorresponding to the selected coordinate information as the at least onesecond user.

To acquire the at least one second user precisely, a distance betweenthe user corresponding to the acquired coordinate information and thecurrent terminal may be calculated precisely according to the secondmanner, thereby acquiring the at least one second user according to thedistance.

Step 504: The specified application server sends the at least one seconduser to the current terminal.

In the specified application server, the user identifier may be used touniquely identify the user, and in this case, the specified applicationserver may send the user identifier of the at least one second user tothe current terminal, and may further send the coordinate information ofthe at least one second user to the current terminal.

Step 505: The current terminal acquires a distance between the at leastone second user and the current terminal when the current terminalreceives the at least one second user sent by the specified applicationserver.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the specified applicationserver may send the coordinate information of the at least one seconduser to the current terminal, so that the current terminal calculatesthe distance between the at least one second user and the currentterminal according to the coordinate information of the at least onesecond user and the location information of the current terminal.Certainly, the specified application server may also calculate thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminalaccording to the coordinate information of the at least one second userand coordinate information of the current terminal, and sends thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminalto the current terminal, which is not specifically limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

A specific operation of calculating, by the current terminal, thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminalaccording to the coordinate information of the at least one second userand the location information of the current terminal may be: acquiringcoordinate information of the current terminal, and calculating thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminalaccording to the coordinate information of the at least one second userand the coordinate information of the current terminal.

An operation of acquiring coordinate information of the current terminalmay be any one of the following two situations: (a), the currentterminal parses the location information of the current terminal, toobtain longitude and latitude data of the current terminal, andcalculates the coordinate information of the current terminal accordingto the longitude and latitude data of the current terminal and by usingthe foregoing formula (1); and (b), the specified application serversends the coordinate information of the current terminal to the currentterminal.

It should be additionally noted that, the calculating, by the currentterminal, the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal according to the coordinate information of the at leastone second user and the coordinate information of the current terminalmay be calculating a linear distance between the coordinate informationof the at least one second user and the coordinate information of thecurrent terminal, which is not elaborated herein.

Step 506: The current terminal sorts the at least one second useraccording to the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal.

The current terminal sorts the at least one second user in descendingorder of the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal. Certainly, the current terminal may also sort the atleast one second user in ascending order of the distance between the atleast one second user and the current terminal.

Optionally, the current terminal may further sort the at least onesecond user according to the level of the at least one second user inthe specified application, or the current terminal may sort the at leastone second user according to an initial letter of the nickname of the atleast one second user, which is not specifically limited in thisembodiment of the present invention; besides, this embodiment of thepresent invention is described by using an example in which the at leastone second user is sorted according to the distance between the at leastone second user and the current terminal.

Step 507: The current terminal displays the at least one second useraccording to a sorted order of the at least one second user.

If the current terminal sorts the at least one second user in descendingorder of the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal, the current terminal may display the at least onesecond user in reverse order of the sorted order of the at least onesecond user. If the current terminal sorts the at least one second userin ascending order of the distance between the at least one second userand the current terminal, the current terminal may display the at leastone second user in the sorted order of the at least one second user. Thecurrent terminal may either display the at least one second user in thesorted order of the at least one second user or display the at least onesecond user in reverse order of the sorted order of the at least onesecond user, as long as the current terminal displays the at least onesecond user in ascending order of the distance between the at least onesecond user and the current terminal. For example, as shown in FIG. 5E,the acquired at least one second user includes second user 1, seconduser 2, second user 3, and second user 4; the distance between seconduser 1 and the current terminal is 1000 meters, the distance betweensecond user 2 and the current terminal is 200 meters, the distance ofsecond user 3 and the current terminal is 400 meters, and the distancebetween second user 4 and the current terminal is 700 meters. Therefore,the at least one second user is displayed in the following order: seconduser 2, second user 3, second user 4, and second user 1; the nickname,avatar, and the like of the at least one second user may be displayedwhen the at least one second user is displayed, where the nickname ofsecond user 2 is Water Moon@Shenzhen, the nickname of second user 3 isAstro Boy, the nick name of second user 4 is Mr. Shaw, and the nicknameof second user 1 is Roy Wing.

Optionally, the terminal may further display, at a positioncorresponding to the at least one second user, the distance between theat least one second user and the current terminal, and the level, score,and the like of the at least one second user. For example, as shown inFIG. 5F, at a position corresponding to each second user, the distancebetween the user and the current terminal is displayed. Further, thelevel of second user 1 is V1, and the score of second user 1 is1,233,454; the level of second user 2 is V1, and the score of seconduser 2 is 23,455,435; the level of second user 3 is V3, and the score ofsecond user 3 is 3,343,543; the level of second user 4 is V2, and thescore of second user 4 is 232,343; and the level and score of each usermay further be displayed in FIG. 5F.

It should be noted that, the at least one second user may be displayednot only in the manner shown in FIG. 5E, but also in other manners, andthe manner shown in FIG. 5E is merely used as an example in thisembodiment of the present invention for description. In addition, thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminal,and the score and level of the at least one second user may be displayednot only in the manner shown in FIG. 5F, but also in other manners, andthe manner shown in FIG. 5F is merely used as an example in thisembodiment of the present invention for description.

Step 508: Determine, when receiving a first selection instruction withrespect to any user among the at least one second user, the second usercorresponding to the first selection instruction as a target user, andacquire a communication message to be sent, the communication messagecarrying a first user identifier, a target user identifier, and secondmessage content.

The first selection instruction may be triggered by a user, and when theuser needs to trigger the first selection instruction, the user mayperform a preset operation on the at least one second user displayed onthe display interface of the current terminal to trigger the firstselection instruction. The preset operation may be a click operation, adouble click operation, a multiple-click operation, a slide operation, adrag operation, a voice operation, and the like.

A specific operation of acquiring a communication message to be sent maybe: displaying a message content editing page, the message contentediting page including an editing interface and at least one piece offirst message content; when receiving a second selection instructionwith respect to the at least one piece of first message content,generating second message content according to an editing instructionreceived through the editing interface and the first message contentcorresponding to the second selection instruction; and generating thecommunication message according to the second message content, the firstuser identifier, and the target user identifier.

Optionally, a specific operation of acquiring a communication message tobe sent may also be: randomly selecting one piece of first messagecontent from multiple pieces of stored first message content, anddisplaying a message content editing page, the message content editingpage including an editing interface and the selected first messagecontent; when receiving an editing instruction through the editinginterface, editing the first message content displayed on the messagecontent editing page, to obtain second message content, and generatingthe communication message according to the second message content, thefirst user identifier and the target user identifier.

For example, when the current terminal receives a first selectioninstruction with respect to any user among the at least one second user,the current terminal may display personal information of the target useras shown in FIG. 5G, where the personal information of the target usershown in FIG. 5G includes the nickname “Water Moon@Shenzhen” of thetarget user, a highest score in history, which is “23,455,435”, of thetarget user using the specified application and a button of “leavehim/her a message”, and when the user clicks the button of “leavehim/her a message”, the interface of the current terminal goes to themessage content editing page, as shown in FIG. 5H; the editing interfacein FIG. 5H displays the first message content, and the user may submitan editing instruction through the editing interface and edit the firstmessage content; and the FIG. 5H also shows a “send” button, which isused to submit a sending instruction.

In this embodiment of the present invention, when the user communicateswith the target user, the current terminal first displays at least onepiece of first message content on the message content editing page, soas to prompt the user when the user does not know what to say to thetarget user. Moreover, the current terminal further provides an editinginterface, and when the user submits an editing instruction through theediting interface, the user may edit the displayed first messagecontent; in this way, the user can customize message content, so thatthe message content is not dull.

Step 509: The current terminal sends the communication message to thespecified application server when receiving a sending instruction.

The sending instruction is used for sending the communication message tothe specified application server, and the sending instruction may betriggered by the user or the terminal. When the user needs to triggerthe sending instruction, the user may perform a preset operation on thedisplay interface of the current terminal to trigger the sendinginstruction. The preset operation may be a click operation, a doubleclick operation, a multiple-click operation, a slide operation, a dragoperation, a voice operation, and the like. When the terminal needs totrigger the sending instruction, the terminal may detect a period oftime during which no editing instruction is received in the editinginterface, and when the period of time reaches a second preset period,the terminal triggers the sending instruction.

Step 510: The specified application server sends the first useridentifier and the second message content to the target user accordingto the target user identifier when the specified application serverreceives the communication message.

When the terminal uses the specified application for the first time andlogs in to the specified application by using a social applicationaccount, the specified application server sends an authorization messageto the terminal. When the terminal receives the authorization message,the terminal displays the authorization message to the user. When theuser agrees to use the social application account to log in to thespecified application, the terminal sends an authorization successmessage to the specified application server. The specified applicationserver receives the authorization success message, and sends theauthorization success message to the social application server. Thesocial application server receives the authorization success message,acquires a user identifier and an open Identity (open ID) correspondingto the social application account of the user, and sends, to thespecified application server, the user identifier and open IDcorresponding to the social application account.

Further, the specified application server receives the user identifierand open ID corresponding to the social application account. Thespecified application server stores the user identifier and the open IDcorresponding to the social application account into a correspondencebetween user identifiers and open IDs.

Specifically, a specific operation of sending, by the specifiedapplication server, the first user identifier and the second messagecontent to the target user according to the target user identifier maybe: acquiring, by the specified application server, a corresponding openID from a stored correspondence between user identifiers and open IDsaccording to the target user identifier, and sending the first useridentifier and the second message content to the target user accordingto the acquired open ID.

Further, to prevent the target user from being disturbed by harassmentinformation, this embodiment of the present invention further sets ananti-harassment mechanism, where a specific process of theanti-harassment mechanism is as follows:

intercepting, by the current terminal when the current terminal receivesthe sending instruction, the communication message if the quantity ofcommunication messages that have been sent in preset duration reaches apreset threshold and no reply message from the target user is receivedwithin the preset duration, and displaying interception promptinformation; or

determining, after the current terminal sends the communication messageto the specified application server, that the specified applicationserver has intercepted the communication message if interception promptinformation sent by the specified application server is received, anddisplaying the interception prompt information.

The anti-harassment mechanism may be implemented in the terminal or inthe specified application server. If the anti-harassment mechanism isimplemented in the specified application server, when the specifiedapplication server receives the communication message that is sent bythe terminal to the target user, the specified application server needsto determine whether the quantity of communication messages that havebeen received in preset duration reaches a preset threshold and whethera reply message sent by the target user to the terminal is receivedwithin the preset duration, and if the quantity of communicationmessages that have been received in the preset duration reaches thepreset threshold and no reply message sent by the target user to theterminal is received within the preset duration, the specifiedapplication server intercepts the received communication message, andsends interception prompt information to the terminal.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the specified applicationis a non-social application, and the specified application server is aserver corresponding to the non-social application. The main function ofa social application is communication between users, while communicationbetween users is not the main function of a non-social application;therefore, in this embodiment of the present invention, communicationbetween users of a non-social application can be implemented based on asocial application.

In this embodiment of the present invention, a current terminalacquires, according to location information of a current terminal and aspecified application identifier, at least one second user that haslogged in to a specified application; when receiving a selectioninstruction with respect to any user among the at least one second user,determines the second user corresponding to the selection instruction asa target user; acquires a communication message to be sent, and sendsthe communication message to a specified application server whenreceiving a sending instruction, so that the specified applicationserver sends the first user identifier and the second message content tothe target user according to the target user identifier. In this way, auser can know behavior of users that are not on a relation chainthereof, a social circle of the user is expanded, and the amount ofinformation that an application can provide is improved.

FIG. 6A shows a communications method based on a social applicationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment ofthe present invention is described by using an example in which thecommunications method based on a social application is applied to animplementation environment shown in FIG. 2. In the implementationenvironment shown in FIG. 2, an example in which the specifiedapplication server in the implementation environment shown in FIG. 1 isdivided into an application server, a location agent server, a mapserver, and multiple storage servers is used for description. Thisembodiment of the present invention elaborates the second implementationmanner for acquiring at least one second user in the communicationsmethod based on a social application, and referring to FIG. 6A, themethod includes:

Step 601: Acquire location information of a current terminal if thecurrent terminal receives a check instruction.

A specific implementation manner of step 601 is the same as that of step501 described above, and is not described in detail herein again.

Step 602: The current terminal sends an acquisition request to anapplication server, the acquisition request carrying a first useridentifier of a user that has logged in to a specified application onthe current terminal and the location information of the currentterminal.

Specifically, the current terminal acquires a first user identifier of auser that has logged in to a specified application on the currentterminal, generates an acquisition request according to the first useridentifier and the location information of the current terminal, andsends the acquisition request to the application server.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the user may use an accountof a social application to log in to the specified application, and inthis case, the current terminal stores a first user identifier of a userthat has logged in to the specified application. The first useridentifier may be an identifier of the social application, or a useridentifier of the user in the social application; the user identifier ofthe user in the social application may be an account that the userregisters in the social application, and certainly, may also be anickname of the user in the social application, and the like.

Step 603: The application server sends the acquisition request to alocation agent server when the application server receives theacquisition request.

Specifically, when the application server receives the acquisitionrequest, the application server sends the acquisition request to thelocation agent server through a communication channel to the locationagent server.

The communication channel between the application server and thelocation agent server may be a tbus channel.

Step 604: The location agent server sends the location information to amap server when the location agent server receives the acquisitionrequest, so that the map server parses the location information, toobtain longitude and latitude data of the current terminal.

Specifically, when the location agent server receives the acquisitionrequest, the location agent server sends the location information to amap server, and the map server parses the location information, toobtain longitude and latitude data of the current terminal. Besides, themap server sends the longitude and latitude data of the current terminalto the location agent server.

The location agent server and the map server perform data communicationby using the HTTP protocol.

Step 605: The location agent server receives the longitude and latitudedata of the current terminal sent by the map server, and calculates,according to the longitude and latitude data of the current terminal,coordinate information of the current terminal in a presettwo-dimensional map.

Specifically, when the location agent server receives the longitude andlatitude data of the current terminal sent by the map server, thelocation agent server calculates, according to the longitude andlatitude data of the current terminal and by using the following formula(1), the coordinate information of the current terminal in the presettwo-dimensional map, where the coordinate information includes anabscissa and an ordinate.

$\begin{matrix}\left\{ \begin{matrix}{x = {\left( {180 - j} \right) \times 40000 \times {10^{3}/360}}} \\{y = {\left( {90 - w} \right) \times 20000 \times {10^{3}/180}}}\end{matrix} \right. & (1)\end{matrix}$

where in the foregoing formula (1), x is an abscissa of the currentterminal in the preset two-dimensional map, j is longitude data of thecurrent terminal, y is an ordinate of the current terminal in the presettwo-dimensional map, and w is latitude data of the current terminal.

It should be noted that, the earth is a slightly flattened sphere, wherethe length of the equator is 40076 kilometers, and the length of themeridian is 40009 kilometers. The earth is approximated as a rectangle(referring to world maps we hang on the wall) using the equator as thelong side of the rectangle. Then, the length of the rectangle is thelength of the equator, and in this embodiment of the present invention,40000 kilometers is used as the length of the rectangle, and 20000kilometers is used as the width of the rectangle. In this case, thelength represented by one longitude degree may be 40000 kilometers/360,and the length represented by one latitude degree is 20000kilometers/180. In addition, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, a location at 180 degrees east longitude and 90 degrees northlatitude is used as the origin of coordinates in the presettwo-dimensional map, where the longitude represents a horizontal axis, apositive direction of the horizontal axis is east to west, the latituderepresents a vertical axis, and a positive direction of the verticalaxis is north to south. In this case, a preset two-dimensional map canbe obtained, then the preset two-dimensional map is divided to obtainmultiple square map grids having a same size, and the multiple map gridshaving a same size are numbered according to a given rule. For example,in this embodiment of the present invention, the preset two-dimensionalmap may be divided by using a square having a side length of 100 metersas a unit, and the map grids in the preset two-dimensional map may benumbered in ascending order along the horizontal axis from the origin ofcoordinates, as shown in FIG. 5. Certainly, the map grids in the presettwo-dimensional map may also be numbered in ascending order along thevertical axis from the origin of coordinates, and this embodiment of thepresent invention is described by using an example in which the mapgrids in the preset two-dimensional map are numbered in ascending orderalong the horizontal axis from the origin of coordinates.

Further, after the location agent server calculates the coordinateinformation of the terminal in the preset two-dimensional map, themethod further includes:

calculating a map grid number corresponding to the coordinateinformation according to the coordinate information of the terminal inthe preset two-dimensional map; calculating, according to the map gridnumber, a number of a storage server that stores coordinate informationcorresponding to users in the map grid; storing the calculated map gridnumber and the first user identifier into a correspondence between mapgrid numbers and user identifiers in the storage server according to thenumber of the storage server; and storing the first user identifier andthe acquired coordinate information into a correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information in the storage server.

A specific operation of calculating a map grid number corresponding tothe coordinate information according to the coordinate information ofthe terminal in the preset two-dimensional map may be: calculating a mapgrid number corresponding to the coordinate information according to thecoordinate information of the terminal in the preset two-dimensional mapand by using the following formula (2).GridGID=[(40000×1000)/s]×└y/x┘+└x/s┐+1  (2)

where in the foregoing formula (2), is the map grid number correspondingto the coordinate information, s is a side length of the map grid in thepreset two-dimensional map, which is a known variable, and in thisembodiment of the present invention, s is 100, and represents a rounddown operation.

A specific operation of calculating, according to the map grid number, anumber of a storage server that stores coordinate informationcorresponding to users in the map grid may be: calculating, according tothe map grid number and by using the following formula (3), a number ofa storage server that stores coordinate information corresponding tousers in the map grid.M=hash(GridGID)%N  (3)

where in the foregoing formula (3), M is the number of the storageserver that stores the coordinate information corresponding to users inthe map grid, hash ( ) represents a hash operation, % is representsmodulo operation, and N is a total quantity of storage servers in asystem.

Calculating the number of the storage server by using the foregoingformula (3) and storing the coordinate information of the user into thestorage server causes heavy load of the storage server. For example, thepreset distance is 1 KM, that is, the radius is 1 KM, and when otherusers within a distance of 1 KM to the current terminal are searchedfor, the quantity of map grids to be searched is approximately2000/100×2000/100=400; a hash operation is separately performed on the400 map grids, to obtain numbers of storage servers corresponding to the400 map grids, and in this case, the storage servers corresponding tothe 400 map grids may include all storage servers. In other words, oneoperation of searching for nearby users need to request data from allthe storage servers, and apparently, the load of the storage servers isheavy.

To solve the problem of heavy load of the storage servers, we shouldensure that most data related to one single request of searching forusers nearby is concentrated on few storage servers. Therefore, it isnecessary to store, in a coarser granularity, data in some areas on asame storage server. In other words, the minimum granularity of an areain which data is stored on a same storage server should be larger thanthe size of the map grid. Preferably, the size of the map grid isincreased, for example, the side length of the map grid is increasedfrom 100 meters to 10000 meters, and in this way, data in a large mapgrid is stored on a same storage server. As shown in FIG. 6B, coordinateinformation of users in a large grid map defined by black thick lines inFIG. 6B is stored on a same storage server, and the large map grids mayalso be numbered according to the map grid numbering method in step 503described above. In this case, a formula for calculating a number of alarge map grid is shown in the following formula (4):VirGridGID=[(40000×1000)/L]×└y/L┐+└x/L┐+1  (4)

where in the forgoing formula (4), is the number of the large map grid,L is the side length of the large map grid, which is a known variable,and in this embodiment of the present invention, L is 10000.

After the number of the large map grid is determined, the number of thestorage server that stores coordinate information corresponding to usersin the large map grid may be calculated by using the following formula(5).M=hash(VirGridGID)%N  (5)

A specific operation of storing the calculated map grid number and thefirst user identifier into a correspondence between map grid numbers anduser identifiers in the storage server may be: if the correspondencebetween map grid numbers and user identifiers stored in the storageserver includes a record corresponding to the first user identifier,replacing a map grid number corresponding to the first user identifierin the correspondence between map grid numbers and user identifiersstored in the storage server with the calculated map grid number; or ifthe correspondence between map grid numbers and user identifiers storedin the storage server does not include a record corresponding to thefirst user identifier, creating a corresponding record in thecorrespondence between map grid numbers and user identifiers, andstoring the calculated map grid number and the first user identifierinto the created record.

Further, after a corresponding record is created in the correspondencebetween map grid numbers and user identifiers, and the calculated mapgrid number and the first user identifier are stored into the createdrecord, the location agent server broadcasts a deletion message to otherstorage servers except the current storage server, where the deletionmessage carries the first user identifier, so that other storage serversdelete the record that includes the first user identifier.

A specific operation of storing the first user identifier and theacquired coordinate information into a correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information in the storage server may be: ifthe correspondence between user identifiers and coordinate informationstored in the storage server includes a record corresponding to thefirst user identifier, replacing coordinate information corresponding tothe first user identifier in the correspondence between user identifiersand coordinate information stored in the storage server with theacquired coordinate information; or if the correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information stored in the storage server doesnot include a record corresponding to the first user identifier,creating a corresponding record in the correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information, and storing the acquiredcoordinate information and the first user identifier into the createdrecord.

Further, after a corresponding record is created in the correspondencebetween user identifiers and coordinate information, and the acquiredcoordinate information and the first user identifier are stored into thecreated record, the location agent server broadcasts a deletion messageto other storage servers except the current storage server, where thedeletion message carries the first user identifier, so that otherstorage servers delete the record that includes the first useridentifier.

Preferably, in this embodiment of the present invention, data is storedin a hash table, and the hash table may include multiple hash buckets;when the storage server stores data, calculation of hash (GridGID) %hashnum is performed, to obtain a number of a hash bucket, where hashnumis the quantity of hash buckets in the hash table. The calculation ofGridGID is so regular that data in some map grids is concentrated in onehash bucket, and in this case, the hash operation may be performed onGridGID one more time, to enhance randomness of the data.

Preferably, when the storage server stores data, the data is stored inshared memory, and meanwhile, the stored data is recorded in an OpenStorage Service (OSS) log, to facilitate data recovery during restartafter the shared memory is cleared.

The storage server can perform two types of operations in total on thedata: one is insertion, and the other is deletion. Each insertionoperation and each deletion operation (excluding deletion of data whentime expires) are recorded in the OSS log. An OSS log is recorded atintervals of a preset period of time. A log that exceeds a given periodof time is deleted. During restart after the shared memory is cleared,first, these OSS logs are sorted in chronological order, and when datais recovered, read-in is started from the earliest OSS log; a record isinserted if an insertion operation is recorded in the OSS log, and arecord is deleted if a deletion operation is recorded in the OSS log.Because the storage server stores a correspondence between useridentifiers and map grid numbers, uniqueness of data can be ensured;besides, data read-in is started from the earliest record, andtherefore, it can be ensured that the data read at last is the latestdata. In addition, because an expiration time is set for an OSS logfile, the amount of data recorded in an OSS log is not excessivelylarge.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, user data storedin each map grid may be linked by using a link list, where the linktable may be created by using a head insertion method, to ensure thatthe latest user data reported is at the front of the link list, and itis also ensured that, logically, data in the link list is sortedaccording to a report time.

Step 606: The location agent server determines, according to a circulararea that uses a point corresponding to the coordinate information as acenter and a preset distance as a radius, map grids that the circulararea occupies in the preset two-dimensional map, the presettwo-dimensional map including multiple map grids having a same size.

The preset distance may be configured by management staff, or set in theterminal by the user, which is not specifically limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Step 607: The location agent server calculates, according to a number ofeach determined map grid, a number of a storage server that storescoordinate information corresponding to users in the map grid.

Specifically, the location agent server separately calculates, accordingto a number of each determined map grid and by using the foregoingformula (3), a number of a storage server that stores coordinateinformation corresponding to users in the map grid.

Step 608: The location agent server sends an acquisition request to thestorage server according to the calculated number of the storage server,each determined map grid, and the first user identifier, to acquire acorresponding second user from the storage server.

Specifically, for each storage server of the determined storage servers,the location agent server searches for the storage server according tothe calculated number of the storage server. The location agent serveracquires the number of the determined map grid, and sends the acquiredmap grid number and the first user identifier to the storage server. Thestorage server acquires corresponding user identifiers from the storedcorrespondence between map grid numbers and user identifiers accordingto the map grid number; selects, among the acquired user identifiers,another user identifier except the first user identifier, and acquirescorresponding coordinate information from the stored correspondencebetween user identifiers and coordinate information according to theselected user identifier; and determines the second user according tothe acquired coordinate information. The storage server sends thedetermined second user to the location agent server.

The user may use different social application accounts to log in to thespecified application, and therefore, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, user identifiers stored in the storage server may further bemarked by using social application identifiers. In this embodiment ofthe present invention, user identifiers marked by a same socialapplication identifier may be acquired, and users corresponding to theacquired user identifiers are determined as the at least one seconduser.

Further, in the storage server, a timestamp may be set for each recordin the correspondence between user identifiers and coordinateinformation, and during selection of at least one second user, a user ina first preset period that is prior to the current time and is closestto the current time may be selected; in this case, a specific operationof acquiring corresponding coordinate information from the storedcorrespondence between user identifiers and coordinate informationaccording to the selected user identifier may be: acquiringcorresponding coordinate information from the stored correspondencebetween user identifiers and coordinate information according to theselected user identifier, and acquiring a current time, and selecting,according to a timestamp corresponding to a record to which the acquiredcoordinate information belongs, coordinate information in a first presetperiod whose timestamp is prior to the current time and closest to thecurrent time.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the manner of acquiring atleast one second user according to the acquired coordinate informationmay be implemented according to any of the following two situations,including:

The first situation: Determine a user corresponding to the acquiredcoordinate information as the at least one second user.

In this embodiment of the present invention, when the presettwo-dimensional map is divided into map grids, the size of the map gridsis relatively small, and therefore, a given error is allowed when the atleast one second user is acquired, and the user corresponding to theacquired coordinate information may be directly determined as the atleast one second user.

The second situation: Select, from the acquired coordinate informationand according to the acquired coordinate information, the center and theradius, coordinate information corresponding to a geographical locationthat is in the preset range of the terminal, and determine a usercorresponding to the selected coordinate information as the at least onesecond user.

To acquire the at least one second user precisely, a distance betweenthe user corresponding to the acquired coordinate information and thecurrent terminal may be calculated precisely according to the secondmanner, thereby acquiring the at least one second user according to thedistance.

Validity of geographical data of the user is time-limited, and as ageographical location of the user changes, the location information ofthe user may expire. Therefore, an expiration time is set on the storageserver for user data, and at the end of the expiration time, the storageserver may clear user data that expires. For example, when data of auser is stored, an update time may be set for the data of the user, andnext time data in the memory is scanned, it is determined whether a timeinterval between the update time and the current time exceeds theexpiration time, if yes the data of the user is cleared, otherwise, thedata of the user is retained.

One hash table may store about one hundred thousand pieces of user data,and the quantity of hash buckets is several hundred thousands. If thehash table is scanned thoroughly during each regular cleaning, assumingthat it takes time t to scan the hash table thoroughly, the storageserver is incapable of providing external services during the time t.Moreover, the expiration time of user data may be several hours, and itis unnecessary to process all data in one time.

Based on the foregoing reasons, the storage server employs a regularcleaning manner, that is, data in a limited quantity of hash buckets isprocessed each time, and numbers of hash buckets that need to beprocessed in a timer next time are recorded. It is assumed that m hashbuckets are processed each time, the whole hash table includes K hashbuckets, a time interval of the timer is T, and an expiration time ofuser data is L. Then, time for scanning the hash table once isTotal=(K/m)*T. As long as Total<=L, data that expires can be cleared intime. By setting proper values of m and T, it can be ensured that thestorage server can clear, in time, data that expires, and the capabilityof the storage server of providing external services is not affected.For example, the quantity of hash buckets processed by each timer may be500.

Step 609: The location agent server assembles the acquired at least onesecond user when receiving the second user sent by each storage server,and sends the assembled at least one second user to the applicationserver.

Because users in the preset range of the current terminal may be storedin multiple storage servers, the location agent server may receivesecond users sent by multiple storage servers. The location agent serverneeds to assemble the second users received from multiple storageservers, and sends the assembled second users to the application server.

When the location agent server sends the acquisition request to thestorage server, the location agent server may create a correspondenceregarding a request sending time, a total quantity of user data thatshould be received, a total quantity of user data that has beenreceived, a serial number, and coordinate information of the user, wherethe serial number is used for identifying a current check operationperformed by the current terminal on a second user. When the locationagent server receives a second user sent by a storage server, if the aserial number carried in the received second user is the same as theserial number in the created correspondence, the total quantity of userdata that has been received in the created correspondence is increasedby 1, and if the increased total quantity of user data that has beenreceived is equal to the total quantity of user data that should bereceived or the request sending time expires, the received second useris sent to the application server.

Further, if the increased total number of user data that has beenreceived is less than the total quantity of user data that should bereceived or the request sending time does not expire, the location agentserver continues to wait for a second user sent by the storage server.

The method in step 609 can be used to control frequency at which thecurrent terminal requests to check users nearby, for example, assumingthat the expiration time is 10 s, after sending the request foracquiring nearby users for the first time, if the current terminal sendsanother request for acquiring nearby users within 10 s, the locationagent server directly rejects the request sent second time.

Step 610: The application server sends the at least one second user tothe current terminal.

In the application server, the user identifier may be used to uniquelyidentify the user, and in this case, the application server may send theuser identifier of the at least one second user to the current terminal,and may further send the coordinate information of the at least onesecond user to the current terminal.

Step 611: The current terminal acquires a distance between the at leastone second user and the current terminal when the current terminalreceives the at least one second user sent by the application server.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the application server maysend the coordinate information of the at least one second user to thecurrent terminal, so that the current terminal calculates the distancebetween the at least one second user and the current terminal accordingto the coordinate information of the at least one second user and thelocation information of the current terminal. Certainly, the locationagent server may calculate the distance between the at least one seconduser and the current terminal according to the coordinate information ofthe at least one second user and coordinate information of the currentterminal, and sends the distance between the at least one second userand the current terminal to the application server, so that theapplication server sends the distance between the at least one seconduser and the current terminal to the current terminal, which is notspecifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

A specific operation of calculating, by the current terminal, thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminalaccording to the coordinate information of the at least one second userand the location information of the current terminal may be: acquiringcoordinate information of the current terminal, and calculating thedistance between the at least one second user and the current terminalaccording to the coordinate information of the at least one second userand the coordinate information of the current terminal.

An operation of acquiring coordinate information of the current terminalmay be any one of the following two situations: (a), the currentterminal parses the location information of the current terminal, toobtain longitude and latitude data of the current terminal, andcalculates the coordinate information of the current terminal accordingto the longitude and latitude data of the current terminal and by usingthe foregoing formula (1); and (b), the application server sends thecoordinate information of the current terminal to the current terminal.

It should be additionally noted that, the calculating, by the currentterminal, the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal according to the coordinate information of the at leastone second user and the coordinate information of the current terminalmay be calculating a linear distance between the coordinate informationof the at least one second user and the coordinate information of thecurrent terminal, which is not elaborated herein.

Step 612: The current terminal sorts the at least one second useraccording to the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal.

Step 613: The current terminal displays the at least one second useraccording to a sorted order of the at least one second user.

Step 614: Determine, when receiving a first selection instruction withrespect to any user among the at least one second user, the second usercorresponding to the first selection instruction as a target user, andacquire a communication message to be sent, the communication messagecarrying a first user identifier, a target user identifier, and secondmessage content.

Specific implementation manners of steps 612 to 614 are the same asthose of steps 506 to 508 described above, and are not described indetail herein again.

Step 615: The current terminal sends the communication message to theapplication server when receiving a sending instruction.

The sending instruction is used for sending the communication message tothe application server, and the sending instruction may be triggered bythe user or the terminal. When the user needs to trigger the sendinginstruction, the user may perform a preset operation on the displayinterface of the current terminal to trigger the sending instruction.The preset operation may be a click operation, a double click operation,a multiple-click operation, a slide operation, a drag operation, a voiceoperation, and the like. When the terminal needs to trigger the sendinginstruction, the terminal may detect a period of time during which noediting instruction is received in the editing interface, and when theperiod of time reaches a second preset period, the terminal triggers thesending instruction.

Step 616: The application server sends the first user identifier and thesecond message content to the target user according to the target useridentifier when the application server receives the communicationmessage.

When the terminal uses the specified application for the first time andlogs in to the application by using a social application account, thespecified application server sends an authorization message to theterminal. When the terminal receives the authorization message, theterminal displays the authorization message to the user. When the useragrees to use the social application account to log in to the specifiedapplication, the terminal sends an authorization success message to theapplication server. The application server receives the authorizationsuccess message, and sends the authorization success message to thesocial application server. The social application server receives theauthorization success message, acquires a user identifier and an open IDcorresponding to the social application account of the user, and sends,to the application server, the user identifier and open ID correspondingto the social application account.

Further, the application server receives the user identifier and open IDcorresponding to the social application account. The application serverstores the user identifier and the open ID corresponding to the socialapplication account into a correspondence between user identifiers andopen IDs.

Specifically, a specific operation of sending, by the applicationserver, the first user identifier and the second message content to thetarget user according to the target user identifier may be: acquiring,by the application server, a corresponding open ID from a storedcorrespondence between user identifiers and open IDs according to thetarget user identifier, and sending the first user identifier and thesecond message content to the target user according to the acquired openID.

Further, to prevent the target user from being disturbed by harassmentinformation, this embodiment of the present invention further sets ananti-harassment mechanism, where a specific process of theanti-harassment mechanism is as follows:

intercepting, by the current terminal when the current terminal receivesthe sending instruction, the communication message if the quantity ofcommunication messages that have been sent in preset duration reaches apreset threshold and no reply message from the target user is receivedwithin the preset duration, and displaying interception promptinformation; or

determining, after the current terminal sends the communication messageto the application server, that the application server has interceptedthe communication message if interception prompt information sent by theapplication server is received, and displaying the interception promptinformation.

The anti-harassment mechanism may be implemented in the terminal or inthe application server. If the anti-harassment mechanism is implementedin the application server, when the application server receives thecommunication message that is sent by the terminal to the target user,the application server needs to determine whether the quantity ofcommunication messages that have been received in preset durationreaches a preset threshold and whether a reply message sent by thetarget user to the terminal is received within the preset duration, andif the quantity of communication messages that have been received in thepreset duration reaches the preset threshold and no reply message sentby the target user to the terminal is received within the presetduration, the application server intercepts the received communicationmessage, and sends interception prompt information to the terminal.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the specified applicationis a non-social application. The main function of a social applicationis communication between users, while communication between users is notthe main function of a non-social application; therefore, in thisembodiment of the present invention, communication between users of anon-social application can be implemented based on a social application.

In this embodiment of the present invention, a current terminalacquires, according to location information of a current terminal and anapplication identifier, at least one second user that has logged in to aspecified application; when receiving a selection instruction withrespect to any user among the at least one second user, determines thesecond user corresponding to the selection instruction as a target user;acquires a communication message to be sent, and sends the communicationmessage to an application server when receiving a sending instruction,so that the application server sends the first user identifier and thesecond message content to the target user according to the target useridentifier. In this way, a user can know behavior of users that are noton a relation chain thereof, a social circle of the user is expanded,and the amount of information that an application can provide isimproved.

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus based on asocial application according to an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 7, the apparatus includes:

a first acquiring module 701, configured to acquire at least one seconduser according to location information of a current terminal and aspecified application identifier, the second user being a user whosegeographical location is in a preset range of the current terminal;

a second acquiring module 702, configured to determine, when receiving afirst selection instruction with respect to any user among the at leastone second user, the second user corresponding to the first selectioninstruction as a target user, and acquire a communication message to besent, the communication message carrying a first user identifier of auser that has logged in to a specified application on the currentterminal, a target user identifier, and second message content; and

a first sending module 703, configured to send the communication messageto a specified application server when receiving a sending instruction,so that the specified application server sends the first user identifierand the second message content to the target user according to thetarget user identifier.

Optionally, the first acquiring module 701 includes:

a first acquiring unit, configured to acquire the location informationof the current terminal when receiving a check instruction;

a first sending unit, configured to send an acquisition request to thespecified application server, the acquisition request carrying the firstuser identifier and the location information, so that the specifiedapplication server acquires at least one second user from a userdatabase according to the first user identifier and the locationinformation, the user database storing an identifier of at least oneuser that logs in to the specified application and coordinateinformation of each user; and

a first receiving unit, configured to receive at least one second usersent by the specified application server.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a third acquiring module, configured to acquire a distance between theat least one second user and the current terminal;

a sorting module, configured to sort the at least one second useraccording to the distance between the at least one second user and thecurrent terminal; and

a display module, configured to display the at least one second useraccording to a sorted order of the at least one second user.

Optionally, the second acquiring module 702 includes:

a determining unit, configured to determine, when receiving a firstselection instruction with respect to any user among the at least onesecond user, the second user corresponding to the first selectioninstruction as the target user;

a display unit, configured to display a message content editing page,the message content editing page comprising an editing interface and atleast one piece of first message content;

a first generating unit, configured to generate, when receiving a secondselection instruction with respect to the at least one piece of firstmessage content, second message content according to an editinginstruction received through the editing interface and the first messagecontent corresponding to the second selection instruction; and

a second generating unit, configured to generate the communicationmessage according to the second message content, the first useridentifier and the target user identifier.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a first interception module, configured to intercept, when the sendinginstruction is received, the communication message if the quantity ofcommunication messages that have been sent in preset duration reaches apreset threshold and no reply message from the target user is receivedwithin the preset duration, and display interception prompt information;or

a determining module, configured to determine, after the communicationmessage is sent to the specified application server, that the specifiedapplication server has intercepted the communication message ifinterception prompt information sent by the specified application serveris received, and display the interception prompt information.

In this embodiment of the present invention, a current terminalacquires, according to location information of a current terminal and aspecified application identifier, at least one second user that haslogged in to a specified application; when receiving a selectioninstruction with respect to any user among the at least one second user,determines the second user corresponding to the selection instruction asa target user; acquires a communication message to be sent, and sendsthe communication message to a specified application server whenreceiving a sending instruction, so that the specified applicationserver sends the first user identifier and the second message content tothe target user according to the target user identifier. In this way, auser can know behavior of users that are not on a relation chainthereof, a social circle of the user is expanded, and the amount ofinformation that an application can provide is improved.

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communications apparatusbased on a social application according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 8, the apparatus includes:

a fourth acquiring module 801, configured to acquire at least one seconduser corresponding to a first user that has logged in to a specifiedapplication on a terminal, and send the at least one second user to theterminal;

a receiving module 802, configured to receive a communication messagesent by the terminal, the communication message carrying a first useridentifier, a target user identifier, and second message content, andthe target user identifier being an identifier of a user selected by thefirst user from the at least one second user; and

a second sending module 803, configured to send the first useridentifier and the second message content to the target user accordingto the target user identifier.

Optionally, the fourth acquiring module 801 includes:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive an acquisition requestsent by the terminal, the acquisition request carrying the first useridentifier and location information of the terminal;

a second acquiring unit, configured to acquire at least one second userfrom a user database according to the first user identifier and thelocation information, the user database storing an identifier of atleast one user that has logged in to the specified application andlocation information of each user; and

a second sending unit, configured to send the at least one second userto the terminal.

Optionally, the second acquiring unit includes:

a first acquiring subunit, configured to acquire, according to thelocation information, coordinate information of the terminal in a presettwo-dimensional map;

a determining subunit, configured to determine, according to a circulararea that uses a point corresponding to the coordinate information as acenter and a preset distance as a radius, map grids that the circulararea occupies in the preset two-dimensional map, the presettwo-dimensional map including multiple map grids having a same size; and

a second acquiring subunit, configured to acquire at least one seconduser from the user database according to the determined map grids andthe first user identifier.

Optionally,

the second acquiring subunit is specifically configured to:

acquire numbers of the determined map grids, and acquire, from a storedcorrespondence between map grid numbers and user identifiers,corresponding user identifiers according to the numbers of the mapgrids;

select, among the acquired user identifiers, another user identifierexcept the first user identifier;

acquire, according to the selected user identifier, correspondingcoordinate information from a stored correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information; and

determine at least one second user according to the acquired coordinateinformation.

Optionally,

the second acquiring subunit is further configured to:

determine a user corresponding to the acquired coordinate information asthe at least one second user; or

select, from the acquired coordinate information and according to theacquired coordinate information, the center and the radius, coordinateinformation corresponding to a geographical location that is in thepreset range of the terminal, and determine a user corresponding to theselected coordinate information as the at least one second user.

Optionally, the second acquiring unit further includes:

a calculation subunit, configured to calculate a map grid numbercorresponding to the coordinate information according to the coordinateinformation of the terminal in the preset two-dimensional map;

a first storage subunit, configured to store the map grid number and thefirst user identifier into a correspondence between map grid numbers anduser identifiers; and

a second storage subunit, configured to store the first user identifierand the coordinate information into a correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes:

a second interception module, configured to intercept, when thecommunication message sent by the terminal to the target user isreceived, the received communication message if the quantity ofcommunication messages that have been received in preset durationreaches a preset threshold and no reply message sent by the target userto the terminal is received within the preset duration, and sendinterception prompt information to the terminal.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after acquiring at leastone second use, the server sends the at least one second user to theterminal, and when receiving a communication message sent by theterminal, the server sends the first user identifier and the secondmessage content to the target user according to the target useridentifier. In this way, a user can know behavior of users that are noton a relation chain thereof, a social circle of the user is expanded,and the amount of information that an application can provide isimproved.

It should be noted that, when the communications apparatus based on asocial application according to the forgoing embodiment implementscommunication based on the social application, division of the foregoingfunctional modules is merely an example for description. In an actualapplication, the foregoing functions may be assigned to and completed bydifferent modules as needed, that is, the internal structure of theapparatus is divided into different functional modules to implement allor some of the functions described above. In addition, thecommunications apparatus based on a social application according to theforgoing embodiment belongs to the same conception as the embodiment ofthe communications method based on a social application. Refer to themethod embodiment for details of the specific implementation process,which is not described herein again.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or some ofthe steps of the foregoing embodiments may be implemented by usinghardware, or may be implemented by a program instructing relevanthardware. The program may be stored in a computer readable storagemedium. The storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk,an optical disc, or the like.

The foregoing descriptions are merely preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, but are not intended to limit the present invention.Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within thespirit and principle of the present invention shall fall within theprotection scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A communications method based on a socialapplication, the method comprising: acquiring at least one second useraccording to location information of a current terminal and a specifiedapplication identifier, the second user being a user whose geographicallocation is in a preset range of the current terminal; determining, whenreceiving a first selection instruction with respect to any user amongthe at least one second user, the second user corresponding to the firstselection instruction as a target user, and acquiring a communicationmessage to be sent, the communication message carrying a first useridentifier of a user that has logged in to a specified application onthe current terminal, a target user identifier, and second messagecontent; sending the communication message to a specified applicationserver when receiving a sending instruction, so that the specifiedapplication server sends the first user identifier and the secondmessage content to the target user according to the target useridentifier; and intercepting, when the sending instruction is received,the communication message if the quantity of communication messages thathave been sent in preset duration reaches a preset threshold and noreply message from the target user is received within the presetduration, and displaying interception prompt information.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the acquiring at least one second useraccording to location information of a current terminal and a specifiedapplication identifier comprises: acquiring the location information ofthe current terminal when receiving a check instruction; sending anacquisition request to the specified application server, the acquisitionrequest carrying the first user identifier and the location information,so that the specified application server acquires at least one seconduser from a user database according to the first user identifier and thelocation information, the user database storing an identifier of atleast one user that logs in to the specified application and coordinateinformation of each user; and receiving the at least one second usersent by the specified application server.
 3. The method according toclaim 2, further comprising: acquiring a distance between the at leastone second user and the current terminal; sorting the at least onesecond user according to the distance between the at least one seconduser and the current terminal; and displaying the at least one seconduser according to a sorted order of the at least one second user.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring a communicationmessage to be sent comprises: displaying a message content editing page,the message content editing page comprising an editing interface and atleast one piece of first message content; generating, when receiving asecond selection instruction with respect to the at least one piece offirst message content, second message content according to an editinginstruction received through the editing interface and the first messagecontent corresponding to the second selection instruction; andgenerating the communication message according to the second messagecontent, the first user identifier and the target user identifier.
 5. Acommunications method based on a social application, the methodcomprising: acquiring at least one second user corresponding to a firstuser that has logged in to a specified application on a terminal, andsending the at least one second user to the terminal; receiving acommunication message sent by the terminal, the communication messagecarrying a first user identifier, a target user identifier, and secondmessage content, and the target user identifier being an identifier of auser selected by the first user from the at least one second user; andsending the first user identifier and the second message content to thetarget user according to the target user identifier; wherein theacquiring at least one second user from a user database according to thefirst user identifier and the location information comprises: acquiringcoordinate information of the terminal in a preset two-dimensional mapaccording to the location information; determining, according to acircular area that uses a point corresponding to the coordinateinformation as a center and a preset distance as a radius, map gridsthat the circular area occupies in the preset two-dimensional map, thepreset two-dimensional map comprising multiple map grids having a samesize; and acquiring at least one second user from the user databaseaccording to the determined map grids and the first user identifier;wherein the acquiring at least one second user from the user databaseaccording to the determined map grids and the first user identifiercomprises: acquiring numbers of the determined map grids, and acquiring,from a stored correspondence between map grid numbers and useridentifiers, corresponding user identifiers according to the numbers ofthe map grids; selecting, among the acquired user identifiers, anotheruser identifier except the first user identifier; acquiring, accordingto the selected user identifier, corresponding coordinate informationfrom a stored correspondence between user identifiers and coordinateinformation; and determining at least one second user according to theacquired coordinate information.
 6. The method according to claim 5,wherein the acquiring at least one second user corresponding to a firstuser that has logged in to a specified application on a terminal, andsending the at least one second user to the terminal comprises:receiving an acquisition request sent by the terminal, the acquisitionrequest carrying the first user identifier and location information ofthe terminal; acquiring at least one second user from a user databaseaccording to the first user identifier and the location information, theuser database storing an identifier of at least one user that has loggedin to the specified application and location information of each user;and sending the at least one second user to the terminal.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 5, wherein the determining at least one second useraccording to the acquired coordinate information comprises: determininga user corresponding to the acquired coordinate information as the atleast one second user; or selecting, from the acquired coordinateinformation and according to the acquired coordinate information, thecenter and the radius, coordinate information corresponding to ageographical location that is in the preset range of the terminal, anddetermining a user corresponding to the selected coordinate informationas the at least one second user.
 8. The method according to claim 5,after the acquiring coordinate information of the terminal in a presettwo-dimensional map according to the location information, furthercomprising: calculating a map grid number corresponding to thecoordinate information according to the coordinate information of theterminal in the preset two-dimensional map; storing the map grid numberand the first user identifier into a correspondence between map gridnumbers and user identifiers; and storing the first user identifier andthe coordinate information into a correspondence between useridentifiers and coordinate information.
 9. The method according to claim5, after the receiving a communication message sent by the terminal,further comprising: intercepting, when the communication message sent bythe terminal to the target user is received, the received communicationmessage if the quantity of communication messages that have beenreceived in preset duration reaches a preset threshold and no replymessage sent by the target user to the terminal is received within thepreset duration, and sending interception prompt information to theterminal.
 10. A communications apparatus based on a social application,comprising a processor, a memory, and multiple instruction modulesexecuted by a computer, the multiple instruction module comprising: afirst acquiring module, configured to acquire at least one second useraccording to location information of a current terminal and a specifiedapplication identifier, the second user being a user whose geographicallocation is in a preset range of the current terminal; a secondacquiring module, configured to determine, when receiving a firstselection instruction with respect to any user among the at least onesecond user, the second user corresponding to the first selectioninstruction as a target user, and acquire a communication message to besent, the communication message carrying a first user identifier of auser that has logged in to a specified application on the currentterminal, a target user identifier, and second message content; a firstsending module, configured to send the communication message to aspecified application server when receiving a sending instruction, sothat the specified application server sends the first user identifierand the second message content to the target user according to thetarget user identifier; and a first interception module, configured tointercept, when the sending instruction is received, the communicationmessage if the quantity of communication messages that have been sent inpreset duration reaches a preset threshold and no reply message from thetarget user is received within the preset duration, and displayinterception prompt information.
 11. The apparatus according to claim10, wherein the first acquiring module comprises: a first acquiringunit, configured to acquire the location information of the currentterminal when receiving a check instruction; a first sending unit,configured to send an acquisition request to the specified applicationserver, the acquisition request carrying the first user identifier andthe location information, so that the specified application serveracquires at least one second user from a user database according to thefirst user identifier and the location information, the user databasestoring an identifier of at least one user that logs in to the specifiedapplication and coordinate information of each user; and a firstreceiving unit, configured to receive at least one second user sent bythe specified application server.
 12. The apparatus according to claim11, further comprising: a third acquiring module, configured to acquirea distance between the at least one second user and the currentterminal; a sorting module, configured to sort the at least one seconduser according to the distance between the at least one second user andthe current terminal; and a display module, configured to display the atleast one second user according to a sorted order of the at least onesecond user.
 13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the secondacquiring module comprises: a determining unit, configured to determine,when receiving a first selection instruction with respect to any useramong the at least one second user, the second user corresponding to thefirst selection instruction as the target user; a display unit,configured to display a message content editing page, the messagecontent editing page comprising an editing interface and at least onepiece of first message content; a first generating unit, configured togenerate, when receiving a second selection instruction with respect tothe at least one piece of first message content, second message contentaccording to an editing instruction received through the editinginterface and the first message content corresponding to the secondselection instruction; and a second generating unit, configured togenerate the communication message according to the second messagecontent, the first user identifier and the target user identifier.